HLT 520 Topic 8 Discussions: Question 1 and 2
(HLT 520 Topic 8 Discussions)
HLT 520 Topic 8 Discussion: Question-Answer 1
A baby is born with anencephaly, or absence of the entire brain above the brainstem. The brainstem is intact, which means that the baby can breathe and have a heart beat and blood pressure, but there is no chance for any human brain function or cognition, due to this birth defect. The health care team begins to educate the mother, since children with this deficit generally die shortly after birth. However, the mother is devoutly religious, and her minister has told her that if she prays hard enough to God, that God will work a miracle and her baby’s brain will heal itself. She is insistent that all possible care be … to her baby, including a months-long stay in the ICU, constant care by a caregiver, regular brain scans, and other expensive modalities. The hospital, finding her adamant, asks the court for guardianship of the baby, with the medical plan to provide only maintenance care with no life-prolonging techniques until the baby dies. What are the ethical issues at play here? How do the principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmalfeasance, and justice manifest themselves? If you were … as an ethical consultant, what would you do/recommend?
HLT-520 Topic 8 Discussion: Question-Answer 2
A 94-year-old woman is … to your hospital with dehydration, trouble breathing, and possible kidney failure. She is clearly in … Alzheimer’s, weighs about 95 pounds, and shows multiple bruises on her body. She cannot talk. Her caregiver attributes the bruises to a blood disorder that reduces clotting.
- What are your thoughts about this situation?
- … kind of investigation would you conduct?
- What actions would you take to be in compliance with ethical principles.
